Hartford, CT — July 12, 2019 … As President Trump orders nationwide raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to arrest thousands of members of undocumented families, hundreds of synagogues, churches and mosques plan to provide sanctuary.

Immigration attorneys have made it clear that the migrants that ICE is targeting are not criminals but may have only committed a civil offense in crossing the US border to legally claim asylum. The attorneys state that in the majority of cases, ICE lacks search warrants to enter homes and or religious facilities.

The raids, which are expected to begin over the weekend will include “collateral” deportations, according to officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the preliminary stage of the operation. In those deportations, the authorities might try to detain immigrants who happened to be on the scene, even though they were not targets of the raids.

One Connecticut Rabbi has responded to the impending raids saying: “Being kind takes an act of courage.”

Rabbi Jeffrey Glickman of Temple Beth Hillel of South Windsor issued the following statement:

“We are privileged to live in the safest times humanity has ever known. For most of our history, harsh weather, starvation, wild beasts and disease limited our average lifespans to the mid-thirties. Today, there is very little risk of anything limiting our life to twice that span. Diseases are in check, good shelter and nutrition is the norm for most of us, and we need only push some buttons on a contraption in our pockets to get assistance.”

Glickman continues: “Still, we live in fear. Our leaders have dealt in fear as though it were political currency, and we accept it as leadership. It often is a ruse for greed.

Let’s remember a few important terms:

The opposite of fear is faith. Faith means that you don’t know what tomorrow will bring, but you keep your eyes open and you might find blessings you had no idea of; you might find that seeds you have planted have borne fruit.

Faith means tomorrow will be better than today.Fear means that you don’t know what tomorrow will bring, but you guard your rear to try and prevent something being broken or lost.

It is hard to look forward when you are always looking backwards. Fear means that today is the only certainty – preserve it at all costs.

Our Bible was written in a much more dangerous time. Yet, our ancestors had the courage to say, “All who are hungry, let them enter and eat,” “Love the stranger,” and “Don’t stand and do nothing while your neighbor bleeds.”

We need to have courage.”

Glickman concludes: “Today, being kind takes an act of courage. Today, recognizing that we are all children of God takes an act of courage. Today, seeing that everyone is worthy of love takes an act of courage.”

In Washington, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that undocumented immigrants don’t have to open the door to immigration agents.

Pelosi made the declaration Thursday ahead of the weekend raids by ICE Agents who are planning to round up illegal immigrants with deportation orders issued by immigration judges.

“An ICE deportation warrant is not the same as a search warrant,” Pelosi said, reading from a card she earlier recited to concerned illegal immigrants at events around the country. “If that is the only document ICE brings to a home raid, ICE does not have a legal right to enter a home.”

She urged Trump to call off the “heartless” raids, warning it was upsetting his Evangelical base.

“These raids were not what they signed up for with President Trump,” Pelosi said.

Pelosi said if ICE lacks a warrant, “a person may refuse to open a door and let them in.”

Immigration defense lawyers are likely to file motions to reopen the families’ immigration cases, which would significantly delay, if not stop altogether, their removal from the United States.